


Make Friends First, Make Sales Second

by hopespym



Series: An Office is a Place Where Dreams Come True [1]
Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Ciri POV, M/M, Soulmates, a lot of feelings tbh, the start of dad!geralt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-22 10:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22714759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopespym/pseuds/hopespym
Summary: Looking up at the dullest building she had ever seen, Ciri really could not believe that this is where her place of work for the foreseeable future would be. God. Why did she want to quit already? The only thing that got her through the doors to the building was the fact that this was the only decent job she had managed to find within the time limit she had.or: an office au i forced onto my friends
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Series: An Office is a Place Where Dreams Come True [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1633564
Comments: 9
Kudos: 162





	Make Friends First, Make Sales Second

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time writing any of these characters so please bare with if they seem occ!  
> big big thank you to elin for the cheer leading and syn for being the best beta, appreciate u both <3

Looking up at the dullest building she had ever seen, Ciri really could not believe that this is where her place of work for the foreseeable future would be. God. Why did she want to quit already? The only thing that got her through the doors to the building was the fact that this was the only decent job she had managed to find within the time limit she had.

Not that she had any great high expectations, but she  _ had _ hoped for something more than off-brand white painted walls and the seemingly cliche water cooler in the middle of an empty hallway. It seemed to glug sadly at her as she walked by, trailing behind a woman with flaming ginger hair that Ciri envied the flawless look of. 

“Right now you’re basically just in charge of making sure things around the office are working smoothly - making sure the printer has paper, ink, people have coffees and all the office supplies, things like that.” 

Ciri nodded, taking a look around the space that Triss Merigold, her now boss, had stopped in the middle of. There were a few desks scattered around the office with plants in all four of the corners and beside the doors - almost like they were making up for something. There were a couple framed photos on the wall, but each mini cubicle surrounding each desk had its own personalised touch to.

Triss turned to Ciri, a smile still stuck firmly on her face, “This is where you’ll mainly be located, but we might have you in some of the other levels depending on if someone is away or not. There’s five main people on this floor but a lot of drifters. We’re making plans on expanding this floor soon though, adding more workers, so you’ve come in at a good time,” They both rounded the corner of one of the cubicles and Ciri had to take a breath when she saw the man who was sitting at the desk, staring at the wall like it had all the answers to life's great questions, “This is Geralt, he’ll show you around the rest of the space and introduce you to everyone. Geralt, this is Ciri.” 

Not taking her eyes off of the man as Triss left the two of them alone. His eyes flickered to her and he seemed to take a deep breath, closing his eyes for barely a second before his chair swiveled around so that they were face to face. 

He didn’t say anything for a moment and neither did Ciri, not sure what she was doing or if the situation could get anymore awkward if she was completely honest, but then Geralt rolled his eyes minutely with a small grunt and stood up, motioning for Ciri to follow him.

Torn between wanting to say something and wanting to keep the peace, Ciri didn’t offer anything else to say and neither did Geralt. After a few moments he stopped and turned around, “This is Jaskier’s cubicle. You’ll know him when you see him, or hear him first at least. He’s kind of a dumb ass.”

“‘Kind’ of might be an understatement,” Ciri turned when she heard the click of heels and a female voice speak clearly from behind her. Turning to face the voice she found a woman with long dark hair and blue eyeshadow which Ciri thought matched her complexion way too well, “I’m Yennefer, pleased to meet you.”

“I’m Ciri, I just started here today.” Yennefer smiled kindly at her as Ciri wanted to melt into the floor. She gave a small smile back, noticing how confident the woman held herself - straight edge to her shoulders, head held high and an ease that suggested she was comfortable in her surroundings.

“Always know the best ways to enter, Yen. Ciri, Yen takes care of all the customers who want to buy from us.”

“Yes, I make sure that everyone’s happy with the deals made in a manner that’s convenient for us all. Doesn’t hurt to have a pretty face either.”

Ciri blushed minutely as Yennefer winked at her before she turned back to Geralt, “What do you do?”

Geralt opened his mouth to respond but before he could, someone else interrupted, “Geralt here is our resident brooder. He’ll give people a murder glare if they talk too loud, type too annoying, breathe too loud… Anything that annoys him, really, which is just about everything. But he looks sexy doing it so we forgive him!”

A man with floppy brown hair and a slim figure came up behind Geralt as the man sighed and took a deep breath, trying to shrug off the arms that were winding around his neck, but muttering a small “Fuck” when he realised that it was futile.

“Jaskier?”

The man seemed to… Beam at her and she couldn’t help but let a slightly more confident smile grow on her face as well, “At your service, m’lady. Whilst our dear Geralt  _ actually _ works in adulting and accounting, I’ve found that just… Doesn’t match his wild and rugged personality. We’re still trying to find a position that properly fits him.”

“Don’t you have work to be doing?”

A small smirk on his face, Jaskier collapsed back into his chair as Geralt nodded for Ciri to follow him to the other side of the room, Jaskier let out one last call, “You’d miss me if I were gone!”

Even though Ciri had only met Geralt not that long ago, she could already tell that he was rolling his eyes, or trying really hard not to. He turned around when he got to another desk, “This is where you’ll be sitting. Triss says now that you’ll only be doing errand type jobs, but you’ll probably end up being much more of a receptionist when Tissaia gets her promotion,” he started to walk away, but looked back at Ciri for a quick moment, “You’ll meet her sometime soon. Just get used to everyone and read everything on your desk. It’ll tell you what you need to do.”

Ciri nodded and looked around the desk, trying not to show her worry and how overwhelmed she was feeling on her face. She heard footsteps approach the desk and she looked up to find Geralt back in front of her, an almost pensive look in his face before it seemed to soften out and he crouched down to eye level with her, “It’s scary at first, but you’ll be alright, kid.”

Letting out a shaky breath she smiled at him, “Thank you Geralt.” 

It didn’t take Ciri as long as she worried for her to find a nice routine. The pamphlets on her desk that Geralt pointed out had, in fact, been very helpful and it seemed like Triss had gotten each member of the small team to write about themself and what their roles were - which she was eternally grateful for.

In the mornings she would show up fifteen minutes early with a hot chocolate and a muffin for breakfast and made sure that the room was like it was the day before. She made sure all the computers were going without problems, that the water jug was full and the coffee dispenser was turned on. 

Each morning she would also notice that her job was, for the moment, more of a glorified assistant than anything, but both Geralt and Triss had made a point of her gaining more skills and getting a better variety of work.

So she would sit back at her desk, check her emails to see if Triss had messaged her about anything or if someone else on another floor had something to say and is usually halfway through the morning before the first person comes onto the floor - usually Yennefer or Tissaia, but this morning is Yennefer.

“Morning Yennefer! Istredd sent these through for you to have a look at - something about him not being able to deal with this so letting you have a go.”

“Well women are always more competent than men, don’t you agree?”

Smiling at each other before going to their own tasks, Ciri greets everyone coming into work. Next comes Tissaia, then Geralt and Jaskier soon after, way too preppy for the morning as usual, along with a smattering of other people to take her attention.

After the morning rush, it’s usually pretty silent and clear to see that most, if not all of the people in the office don’t… Really take their jobs too seriously. Geralt’s throwing crumpled up paper at Jaskiers head whilst simultaneously throwing it at everyone  _ else _ who throws anything at Jaskier.

In order to get paper thrown at him in the first place, Jaskier’s spouting on about paper and reports and office supplies and other things no one really cares about very loudly, much too cheerful. Ciri giggles behind her hand when he starts  _ singing _ and next thing he’s doing a verse directed towards  _ her. _ Tissaia comes up beside her and offers her a paperclip to fling at him, but when Ciri politely declines she shrugs and throws it anyway.

Jaskier’s dramatic fall is much too entertaining for the time of the morning that it is so Ciri takes coffee orders for everyone and pulls on her coat and the company credit card she had been given before exiting into the day.

As she made her way into the coffee shop on the corner,  _ Mystic Beans _ , she couldn’t help but notice all of the loved up couples. Stepping into line, she looked around her, smiling at all the people who she (accidentally) made eye contact with, before noticing all the people with linked arms and hands. 

Moving up the line before ordering and making sure to ask for a cardboard holder to carry them all in before she looked around the store again before bringing up a game on her phone, living in vain that she could finish this horrid level in Candy Crush.

Where she lived soul mates weren’t really a brought up subject, they were more of a private thing. When Ciri had first moved she had been shocked at the shamelessness of it all, but had also lived for it. Because of her upbringing, she hadn’t really ever been too fussed on finding her own soulmate, happy to just go with the flow - though her grandmother did talk an awful lot about destiny.

Here, she had all the room to explore it, but still found herself not really minding. She knew the basics: everyone had potential soulmates, whether they were platonic, romantic, or whatever someone made out of them. There were no physical changes when you did find a soulmate, but apparently you just knew.

Leaning against the wall, still pondering, she jumped when someone touched her arm and blushed a horrifying red on her face as she took the coffees from the barista and left for the office. She knew she got a few odd looks when she opened the door to her office space so she assumed that her face must still have a red shine to it.

Handing out the drinks to each person, she couldn’t help but wonder whether anyone had found their soulmates - not that she could really be a judge but… Sometimes it was kind of fun to try and guess. 

Handing Jaskier his horror concoction of the day, a java chip frappuccino, she thought that maybe his soulmate was someone to match his crazy - not that he was crazy _.  _ Just that he seemed to have a  _ lot _ of fun. Even if sometimes she could tell that he wasn’t feeling it all the way.

Or perhaps he needed someone to help balance out all of his energy. Moving the coffee from one hand to the other, Geralt came up beside her and took his own drink along with Yennefers, going over to her desk to give her her drink along with some papers. 

Discarding the holding tray in the recycling bin, Ciri settled back in her desk - looking over the room once more before she let out a breath, beginning to compose an email back to Triss.

Lunches she usually spent alone sitting at the table in the kitchen. She didn’t really mind though, it was nice to get some quiet time in the office, though she did envy that she still didn’t seem to feel entirely comfortable around the people she worked with.

Which was understandable, she had only been working there for nearly two months on a whole and didn’t really go out of her way to create any meaningful friendships or relationships. She goofed off some with them, but mainly kept to herself.

Taking another bite of some pasta she had hastily brought earlier in the morning but not quite liking, she pondered why she was still acting so shy around everyone when the chair in front of her moved.

Mouth full of pasta, she looked up to find Geralt taking a seat, looking at her with a questioning glance. She nodded and he relaxed fully into the seat, “Are you okay?”

“Excuse me?” She furrowed her eyebrows as she let her fork fall against the plastic, mouth drooping at the sides minutely.

Geralt merely looked at her for a moment before pulling out his own lunch and averting his eyes to a note sellotaped to it, “I asked if you were okay.”

“Oh, I’m fine! Thank you for asking! Are… Are you okay?”

Though her brow was slightly furrowed still, she found herself almost touched that Geralt was checking up on her. Geralt replied with nothing more than a nod, and before he could open his mouth Jaskier came into the room.

“Oh Geralt, I hope you’re not traumatising the poor girl.”

“There’s nothing here more traumatising in this room than this crudely written note in that thing you call handwriting.”

Jaskier frowned and slumped for a second before he plucked the note from where Geralt was holding it up for him to take, “Well it’s not my fault that you leave so early. How many times do I need to tell you to just wait for me and we’ll come to work together.”

Geralt smiled at Ciri’s (probably obvious) confusion before he caught Jaskier’s hand and pulled the other man towards him, “Yes, but then I have to listen to your dreadful singing, and who wants that first thing in the morning?”

Jaskier fake ‘hmph’ed at the other man, looking towards the ceiling with a disappointed look, “I’ll have you know that the cockroaches and I have a  _ great _ time in the morning.”

Ciri averted her eyes and picked up her fork again, taking another bite of the tasteless pasta when Jaskier leant down and left a quick peck on Geralt's lips, leaving in the next second. 

Geralt took a bite of his own sandwich, the two of them eating in companionable silence before Geralt got up from his seat and retrieved a glass to fill with water. 

Seriously considering just throwing away the rest of her lunch, Ciri looked up when Geralt once again stopped in front of her, “We don’t bite. You don’t need to always be alone here.”

He, thankfully, didn’t wait for her reply before he left. 

Another month had gone by before Ciri had come to the  _ definite  _ conclusion that Geralt and Jaskier were soulmates - which was actually really nice. By then she had taken Geralt’s hint and started interacting with her office workers a bit more and only spent lunches alone when she truly felt like she needed time alone.

Geralt still seemed to go out of his way to make sure she was okay and if she admitted it to no one but herself, she was starting to see him as some type of role model or … Like a work dad or something - which horrified her to no end when she first had that thought.

It seemed like she wasn’t the only one that had come to the conclusion that Geralt had taken her under his wing a bit, what with Jaskier cooing over it, Yennefer’s sly smirks, smiles and comments and just the way that Tissaia had only once pointed a very obvious eyebrow when she had started joining in a bit more.

But it was nice, it was fun and she was feeling a lot more confident and suddenly very glad that she had made her home in this job. Triss had commented that she was fitting in extraordinarily well and that everyone seemed really pleased to have her around.

Sometimes she was still caught off guard when Geralt had the sort of tender, soft moments she really had not expected to see when she had met him, but now that she knew him better she knew to look for a slight upturn of the lips, a softening of the eyes or even something as small as letting out a sigh and then springing into some form of action. 

The last one was mainly reserved for when Jaskier was doing something dumb and paying the price for it - like when he tried to see if he could get out of a locked toilet stall when it was jammed and got stuck on the floor. 

Moments like that everyone pretty much agreed to just leave Geralt to it, no matter how much Jaskier dramatized. 

Though Ciri did have to admit, after spending a few nights at the pairs place for dinner when it was obvious to one or both of them that something wasn’t going right with her day, it was nice to have the two of them supporting her. She really did not want to think about what could have happened if she didn’t start the office job.

Her mornings still started the same. 

She arrived to work fifteen minutes early with a hot chocolate and a muffin for her breakfast. She would make sure that the room was like it was the day before and that all the computers were up and going before checking the water jug, the coffee machine and the baked goods that she had started making were on display for anyone to take.

Each morning, she was happy to have the job that she did as she sat back at her desk, checked her emails and responded to anything Triss has sent before sorting through the other emails. She was usually halfway through her muffin when the first people started to flock through the doors, still either Yennefer or Tissaia. 

Now though, their floor had grown so added were Fringilla, Mouse, Renfri and Vilgefortz - along with whoever else was coming down onto the floor for whatever reason. Geralt appeared sometime during the rush, with Jaskier always coming later on with a smile on his face and a still annoying amount of enthusiasm for how early it was in the morning.

As she started to write a note to pass onto Triss, some complaint that Fringilla had had about company morale or something that probably wouldn’t even go through but that she felt good speaking out about, she couldn’t help but think her grandmother might have been somewhat right about destiny.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you thought below!
> 
> come screech with me about winterhawk:  
> twitter: [betsybraddocks](https://twitter.com/betsybraddocks)  
> tumblr: [thescarletwitch](https://thescarletwitch.tumblr.com/)


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